The Valen
by xBloomStarx
Summary: For years he had been haunted by the child that he had attempted to destroy. And now when he gets the opportunity to finally be rid of her, will he destroy her or will the worst overcome him -falling in love with her?
1. Chapter 1

Ha. I really need to get a life. xD And I'm starting off different for a change (Good for me!) by beginning in a non-first person point of view and I'm not starting it off this time, Baltor is for a change. :O I'm starting to scare myself. By the way, I have absolutely no idea why I always use Zathark Academy as a school. It just popped into my head a long time ago and I just keep using it for some strange reason. And also, I have no idea why but for some out-of-my-mind thing, I'm typing this in the section that I usually type my story _Hollywood Girl_. Yeah, awkwardness.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Baltor walked down the dark corridors of the nearby Zathark Academy lost in thought. It was eleven o'clock at night and he was trying to figure out which door it was that led to the right room that he was supposed to be in. The room that was to be said that he was supposed to get his 'mission'.

At the end of the quiet hall he found was he was looking for. It wasn't supposed to be there, but for this night, it was definitely there. It was only seen by Baltor's kind and only his kind. But even with his power, not even he could tell what was in store behind the entryway.

When he reached the door, he saw that it had no handle. Typical. He layed his hand on the wooden surface and muttered a few words in a strange language. Under his hand, a blood-red glow submerged it and the door swung open slowly.

Baltor smirked and walked in, his burgundy coat lightly billowed out behind him as he entered. (A/N: If you love Baltor's awesome coat as much as I do, please say so in your review. lol)

The door shut behind him and the dark room became dimly lit with torches that lined the walls. There was a round table in the center of the room and three people dressed in black surrounded the table.

"So, you arrived," Vladimir, the one in the center said, "finally." He had short dark hair that was pulled back into a small ponytail. His pale purple eyes were splattered with red spots and his pale skin gleamed in the lighting.

"Well it's kind of hard to read directions that you give someone on a piece of paper that immediately bursts into flames after reading it." Baltor said, sitting down in the fourth empty chair.

"We thought that you would've had a decent enough mind to realize the magic embedded in the paper." The one on Vladimir's left, Ezra, said darkly. He was Vladimir's twin, despite Ezra's dark blonde hair.

"But apparently you didn't." Cairo, also very similar to Vladimir and Ezra just with dark brown hair, added sneering at Baltor.

"I'm so sorry if I was sent the instructions whenever I was sleeping. Whenever you wake me up in the dead of night isn't exactly the best way to make me think clearly." The only thing was that he was lying. He hadn't been able to sleep for days. Every time he even closed his gold eyes he saw a pair of innocent pale blue ones from his past staring back at him.

"Moving on," Vladimir interrupted before Cairo could reply. "As I think you already know, we have a task for you."

"Yes, and this task is. . . ?" Baltor answered, propping his feet on the table.

"The planet Sparx has been the ruling planet for centuries. Almost seventeen years ago, the Ancestresses thought that it needed to be destroyed because of the power it held." the dark haired man said.

"No, the Ancestresses destroyed Sparx for the Dragon Fire. I was there, I should know."

"The Ancestresses did abolish the planet in search for the Flame, yes, but their second thought in mind was to destroy it because they also thought that Sparx was too powerful. So they went for the source -the Flame itself. But while in search for it, the Flame disappeared and the newborn princess of the realm disappeared -some say that she died during the destruction. Some think that the death was just a coincidence since the rest of the royal family died as well. We think not. And we have proof to support our side of the story."

Ezra slid a photograph across the wooden surface towards Baltor. He picked it up and examined what was on it carefully. On the paper was a picture of a girl with long brilliant red hair and flawless pale skin.

"A picture of the former queen of Sparx? Is this supposed to be amusing?" he asked, clearly bored.

Cairo put took fingers on the picture and spread them apart, enlarging the picture. He pointed at her neck and said, "Look more closely."

When Baltor looked again, he realized what he had missed. A familiar birthmark on the girl's neck that was just barely visible was shaped like a certain mythical creature. The Great Dragon. A sudden chill of fear shot through his body.

He made the picture go back to its normal form and zoomed in on her eyes. How he hadn't noticed it before he could never guess. The same pale blue eyes from his dreams was now inside the photograph, staring right back into his own eyes. Somewhere in his subconscious he heard a baby crying. Baltor slammed his fist down on the picture and looked down at the floor.

Vladimir smirked evilly. "Oh, so you do in fact recognize who's in this picture." he said, folding his hands together on the table. "I knew you would."

"Why are you showing me this?" Baltor asked him, through clenched teeth.

"Because _she_is your mission. The princess of Sparx still lives and we need that to change." Vladimir looked over at Baltor's pained expression and his smirk grew wider. "And you're the one who's going to change that."

"I've already attempted to kill her once, and with the consequence that followed afterwards isn't exactly the one I want to live with any longer."

"Oh no, we don't want you to kill her." Ezra said, an evil grin on his face.

"We want you to do something _far_ more worse." Cairo added, smiling maliciously.

Baltor raised an eyebrow.

"You see, this is what we need you to do . . . " Vladimir replied.

* * *

**Bloom's POV**

I twirled my finger around on the slip of paper delicately, trying to rid my boredom. Sadly, it wasn't working. no matter how hard I tried, nothing could save me from the unexciting lecture that our teacher, Professor WizGiz, was giving the glass about transforming a frog into a cat. Why we would _ever_ need that skill in life, I had no idea.

I was about to let out a sigh but a soft pressure suddenly was applied to the back of my head. Slowly I looked over my shoulder and saw that the guy behind me was busily at work writing down everything that the professor said. _Why are princes such nerds?_ I thought to myself while rolling my eyes. I turned my attention back to the paper on my desk. I had to stifle a yell when I saw that a different crumpled up paper was in its place.

Curiosity getting the best of me as always, I opened up the crinkly paper and read what was inside it. When I finished reading it, the bell rang for the end of classes and we all got up to leave. But instead of leaving, I walked up to the "oh-so" popular Prince Sky of Eraklyon and his pack of low-I.Q. miscreants.

"I got your note." I told him, sitting on the desk in front of him.

He smirked at me and shooed his buddies away. He shook out his blonde mane and looked at me.

"And . . . ?" he said, taking my hand in his and leading me out of the classroom and into the school courtyard.

"And I was flattered. But there's just one little thing." I replied, slinking my hand out of his awkwardly.

"What would that be?"

"It's just that I don't date guys who drive on the curvy road."

He stared at me blankly. ". . . Excuse me?"

"Yeah, I mean, I know that guys like you are trying harder nowadays to cover up what you really are. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't live with myself if I was used as a cover-up."

"Wh-What are you talking about?

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Bloom, I'm not gay!"

I went silent and averted my eyes to the ground at my side. I clicked my tongue. "Awkward."

Both of us were dead quiet. Only the sounds of others laughing amongst each other and the rushing water from the replica of the Trevy Fountain from Earth (which we were standing in front of) was all that were in the air.

"So now that you know that you aren't being used as a cover-up, would you like to go out tonight . . . with me?" Sky asked, holding his hand out to me.

"Well, since you asked," I answered with a small laugh. I shot him one of my best smiles and I saw him let out a sigh of relief.

I lifted my hand and slapped him a low-five. "But I'm not interested in guys who I once thought were queer." I flipped my low hung side-ponytail over my shoulder and gave him a small wave with my fingers. "Tootles, Bi!"

"It's Sky." he corrected.

"Oh trust me, I know that."

Before he could respond, I began walking towards the girls' dormitories in the east wing of Zathark Academy. That place I had called home since . . . well forever. I had grown up on the grounds of the Academy, raised by the headmistress. No one really knows how I even got here. Ms. Faragonda -the headmistress- said that I appeared in the courtyard out a burst of flames and there I was on the grass as a baby. They couldn't trace where I came from, so they decided to keep me. Since then I have been raised on these school grounds ever since.

And I absolutely _hate_ it with a despising passion. I know that they know where I came from, they just won't tell me. That's why every time I try to bring it up with Ms. Faragonda she always just brushes it off and sends me back to my dorm room. Which just peeves me off even more.

"Bloom!"

I groaned in annoyance and spun around on my heel. "What could you possibly want now, Stella?" I asked her with a sigh.

Stella was my bestie here at the Academy. Sure she was popular, preppy, and was the princess of Solaria but somehow we had become the closest of friends when we found out that we were dorm buddies. And no one knows how since we're polar opposites. She's a tan-skinned blonde who's bubbly and optimistic while I'm a pale-as-anything mega-ginger who's bitchy and tells it as it is without regret.

"I saw you talking to Prince Sky." she said, poking my shoulder and readjusting her pink messenger bag on her shoulder.

"Yeah, so?" I replied, continuing to walk to the dorm room. I strutted down the gray-stone hallways, directing myself up the long spiraling stone staircase to the third floor.

"_So_? What did he say? Did he ask you out? You know he's had the biggest darn crush on you since God knows when!" she rambled, trying to keep up with my quick pace.

"Yes, he asked me out. Big deal."

"OMG! What did you tell him?"

"I told him that I don't date gay guys."

She smacked my arm when we reached the wooden door that read '475.' "Bloom, that was mean! When he finally gets the gut to ask you out you totally trash him!"

I shrugged and twisted the brass door handle. "Oh well. Not my problem, really."

The door creaked open and we walked into the wide dorm room, setting our stuff down on our beds. No one spoke. Not even Stella which surprised me.

"Stella you've become unaturally quiet. What happened -someone put another over-sized spider in your bag again?" I asked her, taking the ponytail holder out of my ahir running a brush through it softly.

Still silence.

"Stell?" I said, turning around. My eyes widened and my brush dropped to the wooden floor. ". . . No flipping way."

* * *

_Haha! Cliffy! Please review. And tell me what story that you would like to see updated next! _

_§ ~ SpArXsHiPpInG4EvEr ~ §_

_-Bloom_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Baltor grabbed the door handle and silently opened the door to reveal the room. It was like any other dorm room –small and messy- so he knew that this task would not be so easy. He would have to inspect everything in order to find what he was looking for.

Stepping inside, Baltor walked over to the vanity, deciding to start there. Picking up one of the multiple picture frames, he grimaced at the photo. A young girl with long blonde hair and glasses stood there in front of what looked like an elementary school with a freckle-faced redhead girl with pigtails. Both of them had a huge smile and an arm looped around each other's shoulders. Baltor instantly wanted to smash the picture onto the floor but resisted the urge. He couldn't leave behind any sort of evidence that he had been there or the plan would fail. Gently setting the picture down, he made his way over to one of the beds estimating that he was on the right course. Unfortunately, he found that there was nothing of use to him there.

Voices suddenly became audible outside the room, their volume signaling that they were coming closer. Grabbing at something random, he transported himself out of the room as a redhead walked into the room, tossing her bag onto the bed.

* * *

_-Bloom's POV-_

"Is that what I think it is?" I whispered, cautious.

"Indeed it is." She whispered back, waving them in front of my face.

"How did you get these?" I asked in awe as I snatched the tickets out of Stella's hand.

"Oh, you know, the usual way." She replied, smirking triumphantly.

"You mean you did the whole 'I promise I'll finally let you get to fourth base, Brandon' trick?" I replied, mimicking her voice as if she were actually speaking to her boyfriend.

She put a hand to her chest in fake shock. "How could you ever accuse me of such a thing?"

"Because you're a sneaky little whore."

" . . . I resent that."

"Only because what I said was true. But I am glad that you created that tactic now."

"Of course you are. I completely forgot I had those, too."

"How do you forget concert tickets like these?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because I'm not into strange little Earth bands like you are." She retorted, sitting down on herbed. She pulled out a nail file from God knows where and began filing her already perfect nails.

"Um, if I remember correctly," I told her, smiling evilly, "_I_ was the one who found _you _listening to . . . oh, what was it? Oh, yeah, NSYNC."

She gasped. "Do not speak of my music taste!"

"Then don't criticize mine Remember, I don't like to play fair."

Stella huffed, "I noticed."

Looking back down at the tickets, I had to bite my tongue in order to hold back my squealing. Stella knew that I'd always wanted to attend an Earth concert, mostly because they had more realistic music (in my personal opinion).

"I have to show these to Flora!" I gasped, darting past my blonde friend.

"Well, wait up!" Stella yelled after me, following in suit.

Too excited to care, I kept running as fast as I could. Down a few hallways were a few of our friends, Flora and Musa (they shared a dorm). They were the only two who understood my strange addiction to Earth music, mostly because Flora was just a caring person in general and Musa was a girl who loved every single type of music known to the universe.

Busting into their room, I started jumping up and down, barely containing my excitement. Musa raised an eyebrow at me while Flora stared at me as if I were crazy.

"Um, is there something you want to say?" Flora asked softly, setting down one of her newest botanical projects on her desk.

"Guess what?" I said, still jumping.

"You finally admitted that you're not a virgin?" Musa interjected, not looking up from the song she was writing. "I must honestly say that I'm not surprised –not one little bit."

I stopped jumping and stood there, placing my hands on my hips angrily. "I _am_ a virgin, Musa! I don't see why that's such a hard concept?"

"Well, I'm so sorry for stating the obvious."

Before I could say anything else, Stella came in looking anything but happy. "Why don't you run a little faster, Bloom?"

I shrugged. "I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not, so I can't."

She huffed, strutting over and plopping down on the bed next to Musa. The dark-haired girl froze, turning her gaze over to Stella. "Excuse you," she told her, "but I don't remember inviting you to sit here."

"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo! You know that I don't care about invitations unless they're for a party."

Flora rolled her eyes, but walked over towards me. "So, what are you all giddy about?"

I shoved them near her face. "Read it and weep." I whispered, waving them slowly.

The nature-lover took the tickets out of my hand and inspected them. "So Stella finally gave them to you?"

My eyes widened in shock at her words. "What do you mean by 'finally'?"

"Yeah, she's had them for God knows how long. I'm surprised that she remembered them."

"Sadly, I have to agree." Musa added, returning her attention to her notebook.

My glare went over to Stella. "I . . . am apalled."

The blonde girl shrugged. "Well, what did you expect me to do -give you tickets ahead three months in advance?"

"How in the hell did you get tickets from _Earth_ three months ahead?"

"Why are you questioning my skills?"

I sent her a blank stare, letting her know my response by my silence.

She sighed, "Alright, alright, I am not technically legally allowed to answer that question."

Flora shook her head in disappointment. "Child, you are going to end up in a sticky situation one of these days that your daddy isn't going to be able to get you out of."

The blonde's brown eyes looked up at the ceiling, setting her jaw in annoyance. "Don't think I don't know that, Flo. But I'm young and stupid so damn it, I can do whatever I want!"

"You just restated everything that we already knew about you, Stell." Musa responded, flicking her in the forehead.

She yelped, but I was barely paying a lick of attention. I had to ask: "So does this mean that these could have been stolen or fake?"

Flora nodded, Musa joining her a split second later. "Indeed," the flowery girl said.

My stomach instantly dropped down to my shoes at the thought of them being a sham. I cursed whoever created the idea of fraud items. But I knew of one girl that could tell whether or not they were in fact real.

"You could always go and ask Tecna; I'm sure she'd be able to find out." Musa suggested, running her fingers through one of her pigtails.

"I love how no one trusts my judgment." Stella huffed.

"I must find Tecna!" I yelled, yanking the door open and ignoring my best friend.

Dashing down the corridor, I navigated through the maze of hallways as I attempted to find Tecna's room again. All I was sure of was that it was located somewhere within the depths of the school and this school's pretty big, so I was going to be here a while. The worst part was that her dorm door was blank just like the rest of the doors in that area; therefore, I was going to be fairly busy.

After a minute or two of searching intently, I finally found a familiar turning point. The adrenaline from the excitement caught up to me and I quickly ran to the corner.

"Tecna, open the door, my nerd-ular friend!" I yelled, turning while I did.

I suddenly smacked into something hard, making me bounce back a bit. The world spun for a moment, but after I regained my composure I looked up at what I had collided with. My heart stopped for what seemed like a few seconds.

Gold irises pierced into my own and I was intently focused on those eyes and those eyes alone. They were familiar and to prove my suspicion, the man's eyes reflected a sign of recognition. A look of shock suddenly flashed across his face and it was as if he noticed something I hadn't.

"Bloom, what did I tell you?"

I heard Stella's shrill voice, but it only seemed distant as the man and I continued to keep our gazes locked. For a second I wondered if he felt the same way I did –that he didn't want to look away either.

"You don't randomly stare at strange people; it's considered rude here." Her voice sounded ridiculously close.

A person's firm grip instantly latched on my arm and began to pull me away. I had to fight myself to let Stella snap me back into reality.

"Please excuse her, strange man. It's after three so, in her world, it's time to be weird." The blonde told him, flicking my head. "I'm sorry if she disturbed you –it's just in her ginger nature."

I slapped at her hand and scowled, but didn't remove my gaze.

The man's composure returned to a collected state after she spoke. An unfamiliar look appeared in his eyes. "Not at all," he said, crossing his arms. His voice almost hypnotized me, drawing me in to a place of suspicion and fear. "A piece of advice: watch where you step." With that he broke the gaze and strolled past us, leaving me frozen in place, staring ahead.

"He wasn't creepy at all," Stella muttered, tugging at my arm. "I swear you pick the wrong people to stare at, Bloom."

I shook my head, trying to shake off the previous feelings. Turning my head in her direction, I saw her pivoting as well to look behind us.

"Musa, did you see that?" she yelled, making it so-not-obvious.

"See what?" the blue-haired girl asked as she and Flora finally caught up. They weren't breathing hard or panting like Stella had been so I figured that they just took their sweet time and walked to where we were.

"That guy with the coat!"

"Pipe down, _your Highness_; Vallisto can probably hear you right now." She insisted on using the endearment as sarcastically as possibly when she could. "Now why don't you hop down from your high horse and explain yourself."

While Stella rambled on, I quietly slipped away with the intent of going back to the dorm room (going to annoy Tecna wasn't particularly appealing anymore). My mind was focused on the strange man I had just encountered.

I knew that he didn't work here. I mean, I knew everyone on campus –even the new freshmen—and no one was allowed on the campus grounds unless they had an appointment with the headmistress or was visiting one of the students. With the look in his eyes I could tell that he wasn't here for either of those reasons. He was on some sort of mission that I was determined to uncover.

Reaching the dorm door, I went inside, closing it behind me and falling down onto the bed. My side of the room was messy in comparison to Stella's impeccably clean half. It used to be the opposite, but, things can just never stay the same in my life –I've learned that over the years.

I stared at the ceiling intensely as I attempted to get the image of those eyes out of my head. They were so very familiar but I just couldn't place it. That now adds yet another thing to my list of 'Things to Over-think".

During these rare moments of determination, I would always resort to my only source solace. When I was found, the only object that came with me was a Dragon pendant. All of us could only guess what the dragon stood for –my home realm, wherever that was. I went to grab it out from under my pillow but only found an empty space.

* * *

Author's Note: Yaay_! I'm finally done with this chapter after letting it sit here for over a year! Okay, just a warning, if you don't understand the first part I would suggest re-reading the first chapter because it shall make sense -hopefully- after that. If it doesn't ... fabulous *insert sarcasm*. I would also like to say that we will get to meet Tecna in the next chapter and Sky unfortunately has to come back. Hooray. Not really, I hate him. But he is a part of this story so I must include him. Damn.  
But now, I shall go and let's hope that I won't be on a hiatus again because I have all of Spring Break which starts at the end of tomorrow. Extremely excited for that, just saying. So ... I believe I shall leave now and finally go to bed. I shall see you soon. Emphasis on "I shall"._

~Bloom


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

"It's true; they are in fact real."

Everyone's mouth instantly dropped at the news that Tecna gave us. For a split second, I actually thought that she was lying, but every person in the school knew that Tecna sucked at faking anything. It was impossible for her statement to be false.

"Are you sure?" Musa asked, still not convinced as she stole the concert tickets off the computer table.

"Thanks for the trust, girls." Stella murmured, crossing her arms angrily.

"You're welcome, now, answer me Tec. Are you absolutely _positive_?"

The techno girl nodded, turning her swivel chair around to face us. "Sorry to disappoint you, Musa, but the tickets aren't phony. To be precise, they're magically made just for Bloom, herself."

I shot Stella a confused glance. "You got me custom-made tickets for a show?"

The blonde princess was silent, looking guilty. ". . . Maybe," she said.

"What the hell!" Musa shouted, glaring daggers at my friend. "When it was my birthday all you got me was a freaking package of headbands and a piece of paper that said: "Ditch the pigtails, you're not five anymore"!"

"That's because they are unattractive and drive guys away! ...And your little 'friend' Riven does _not_ count as a guy!"

The dark-haired girl only responded by rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Anyways," Flora said, obviously trying to change the subject, "so now that we got our answer can we go now?"

"I'm with Flo –I'd like to actually dry my hair."

After the incident yesterday, I decided that I didn't care about the ticket issue anymore. I just dropped it and pushed it out of my mind. But from what I we experienced this morning, Stella definitely had not ignored it and neither had Musa. Because, after waking up and taking a shower only thirty minutes ago, I was forcibly dragged from the bathroom my Stella (mercilessly, if I may add) and ended up having to be pulled through the halls in my lazy-day clothes and my horribly wet hair, making me look stranger than usual.

I didn't have a clue for where she was taking me until we reached the door to Tecna's dorm room. I tried to tell Stella to forget about it, but she insisted and somehow after that all of us ended up in the tech-savvy girl's room, getting the tickets scanned.

"No, I must convince Musa first!"

"Screw it! I'm leaving!" I shouted, turning and heading for the door.

"Flora, don't go with her! Musa, are you for real?" Stella said, throwing questions left and right as I noticed that the two girls my blonde friend had mentioned were in fact following me.

"Yes, I am," the Asian-featured girl said, flipping one of her long pigtails over her shoulder. "And, before you ask, it's because I find you annoying."

Blocking out what Stella was going to say, I just shook my head and walked out of Tecna's room. For what it was worth though, it was probably a good thing that I ignored her. I wasn't always in favor for her anger issues; I only found mine acceptable.

"Are you okay?"

I stopped in the corridor and turned to look behind me. "Why would you ask that?" I asked Flora, knitting my eyebrows together in confusion.

In the back of my head, I could tell that my facial expression was betraying me. I was never that good at lying to Flora since she could see through any of my facades.

And seeing my friend's glare confirmed my theory. To my surprise she only shook her head and simply strutted past me with a knowing look.

"What, no interrogation?" I challenged, turning watch her.

The nature-lover stopped and glanced over her shoulder at me. "Do you _want_ me to give you a third-degree?"

"Not particularly," I muttered.

She nodded. "You'll talk about it when you're ready too. But," she walked back over to me, and whispered, "obsessing over that supposed mystery guy Stella was rambling on about yesterday will only stress you out more."

Before I could respond to her, we heard the entire courtyard fall into a hush. Flora and I both knew that the only time the courtyard was quiet was when everyone was asleep –even on actual school days. The two of us moved to the edge of the hallway that over-looked the popular hangout area and a cold feeling pulsed through my veins.

"Bloom, don't do anything stupid!" she shouted after me, having to run to catch up as I stormed toward the stairs.

I almost didn't hear her –I was too focused on my anger. I knew Flora was simply trying to look out for me, but even she knew it was pointless. When my anger takes over, any sensible thoughts or actions would never reach me. And with how much fury was pent up inside of me at this second, the only thing that my mind could register was the red haze that tainted my vision.

To my surprise, I reached the courtyard faster than I had anticipated; but my full attention was locked on the head of light-blue hair only yards away from me. Someone must've noticed because whispers instantly filled the air, gossiping.

The girl that I now stood behind turned to face me. Her cold eyes glinted with a teasing sparkle that only added to my fury.

"Well, well, well; look who we have here," she said, crossing her arms. "Ginger finally emerges from the dark depths just to see me. I feel so not-honored."

_As if I weren't pissed enough_, I thought to myself, still keeping my composure.

The girl's sister-groupies turned as well, only sneering at me. Their cold eyes trained on me also, only showing hate.

"What are you all doing here, Icy? Don't you have little kids that you need to scare?" I demanded, deciding to ignore her snide remark.

"Were you brainwashed or something? Do you not remember what today is?" she snapped back, narrowing her eyes at me.

Before I could respond, I heard someone whisper in my ear, "The Day of the Rose." I peeked over my shoulder to see Flora standing there, as if she were hiding from the sisters before me.

"Correct, Nature Freak," the sister with the long brown hair –Darcy—told her, "and we all know what that means."

I stood there, oblivious to the sister's implication. Stealing another glance at Flora, I saw her face was dark in expression. I raised an eyebrow in confusion but kept quiet.

"Whoever witnesses the Day of the Rose should be pitied," Flora spoke up, sounding more confident, "and you witches are sick to actually rejoice for its existence!"

"It's considered glorious to even be alive when this day takes place!" Icy shouted angrily. "Whoever _doesn't_ celebrate the Day of the Rose should be pitied to not be part of its fame."

Flora opened her mouth to reply but shut it in the same second, looking more than pissed at Icy. The nature lover was always persistent with not cursing, but at that very second I could just tell that she almost lost it. (Honestly, I would love to see Flora explode, but I would never say that to her face because it only ticks her off.)

"That's what I thought," the blue-haired witch replied, smirking at her triumph to shut Flora up. She then turned to me, her smirk only widening with malice, "Hope your name gets drawn, Princess."

This only worsened my confused state and I just stared back at her as her and her groupies turned and left us there. The crowd that we have accumulated from our tiny argument immediately dispersed, leaving us alone in the courtyard.

The feud between our friend group and the Trix (our nickname for Icy and her sisters) had been going on for God knows how long. In our defense though, this could have all been avoided if they weren't so violent. To put it shortly, we all had a little run-in in Magix City and the witches accused us of spying on them and the proceeded to attack. The authorities had to break the fight up, but it didn't stop us from our little verbal arguments that we had been limited to.

I shifted to fully face Flora and I saw the look of dread return on her face. She usually wasn't a let-down in situations like these. In any other normal situation where the Trix were around, she'd always keep her cool and act all Flora the Peace Keeper; but I knew that this Day of the Rose had to be the reason she had acted differently.

"Flo, what's the Day of the Rose?" I blurted out, breaking the silenced atmosphere.

She shook her head. "Something that no one likes to hear about . . . except Icy and them," she mumbled, brushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"That did not answer my question whatsoever," I informed her, "aside from the fact that it's obviously a bad thing."

"The Day of the Rose to six unlucky people is basically their Judgment Day. You remember learning about the Shadow Lords, right?" It took me a second, but I nodded my head when I finally recognized the title. "Well, every four years on this day the Day of the Rose takes place. And that means that two students from each wing of the school –fairy, witch, and specialist— are chosen to go out to find the Shadow Lords since no one has yet to find them."

"If no one's found them then how do the heads of the school even know that they exist?" I asked, puzzled.

She shrugged her shoulders, looking like she agreed with me about how insane the idea was. "But what's certain is that no one has come back and it's highly doubtful that they will any time soon."

"And why is that?"

"Because the one who finds them, takes them down, and comes back alive gets all the fame that they could imagine –and only one. So the whole thing turns into a giant bloodbath to become the champion; it's revolting."

A look of fear crossed my face as I imagined just how one of those could go down. It sent an involuntary shiver down my spine.

Flora placed a hand on my shoulder in comfort. "Hey, calm down. They usually pick one of the seniors to go since they've technically finished all of their classes since it's already May. You're a junior so you have nothing to worry about, Bloom."

The chill that had come so close to disappearing, enveloped me entirely. "But . . . you, Tecna, and Musa are all seniors. Stella and I are the only juniors out of our group."

She gave me a half-smile. "It's okay, it's no big deal."

"No big deal? You could be put in a seriously dangerous position to where you could die and you think that's okay?" I shouted, in awe from how lightly she was taking the current predicament.

"Calm the hell down, Bloom. Flora's right; it's nothing serious." A voice said from behind me.

Looking back, I saw Musa and the other girls emerge from one of the walkways seeming at ease.

"That is correct. Each one of us has a four-percent chance of being chosen out of the all of the fairies here," Tecna stated, looking at one of her mini-computers that she carried around with her.

"Except Bloom and Stella since they're not seniors," Flora repeated.

"Which means we have _authority_," Musa added, smirking evilly.

"Bullshit," I told her, laughing. "You have the maturity of a six-year-old."

Before a response could be given, a loud bell rang, interrupting our conversation. Stella looked unbearably confused, as did I, but I had a good hunch as to what the bell meant. Switching my gaze from Stella to Flora, my theory was automatically confirmed.

"Let the authority show you the way to your demise." Musa replied, using a jokingly dark tone.

"Musa, this is not a joking matter," Flora scolded, swatting the dark-haired girl's arm.

"We might as well joke while we can."

"Musa!"

"Can we please just go? It's essential that everyone be punctual for this. And now that we've been standing here, we now have exactly 3.5 minutes to reach our destination." Tecna interrupted, flustered.

"Then let's not keep the people –and Miss Techno—waiting." Stella said, smiling. Being friends since we were young had many benefits here. Behind her radiant smile, I could see the terror waltzing in her amber eyes.

All of us gave a nod of consent and began to walk to the open lawn in front of the school. Behind me, I could see Stella lagging behind, slowly obtaining the red-faced, overwhelmed look. I was about to go back for her, but before I could spin around we were pushing our way through a huge crowd of students on the lawn. No one spoke while the whole school stood there facing the stage that had been placed a few meters in front of the school.

We were separated from Tecna, Flora, and Musa since they were seniors. The seniors were piled in the front of the crowd –probably for convenience and the juniors were right behind them with the sophomores and freshmen lined up in the same fashion. Stella looked ghostly pale and she gazed at me with worry.

"Just stay calm," I whispered to her, not ruining my intense stare at the three podiums up on the stage.

I was interrupted from adding anything else by the heads of the school walking up to their designated podiums. Grins and smirks adorned each of their faces, making something in my stomach twist.

There was no explanation as to what was going on today, leaving many of the lower classmen clueless. Glancing at the freshmen, I could see that some were even crying.

"As tradition, fairies will go first," Ms. Faragonda, the elderly headmistress of the fairies, announced in her microphone. She turned toward Headmaster Saladin (headmaster of the specialists' wing) and he handed her an envelope. She tediously opened it, making Stella grab my hand in a death-grip.

Through the sunlight, I eyed one of the towers of the academy. A black-feathered bird flew out of the sky and rested on the spire, glaring at the mass of students before it through its beady eyes. Squinting at the bird, I recognized it as a raven and my stomach dropped a hundred stories.

"Bloom Sparx."

* * *

**Okay, so SUCCESS! I finally got this finished, after what seemed like forever, and I'm glad that I'm finally done with this. I'm going to secondary-start this with some explanations here:**  
**-Yes, I know in the show (at least the version that I watched), the Day of the Rose was a holiday that celebrated your parents. Obviously I changed that. Don't like it. Deal with it.**

**-Next, yes this situation resembles the Reaping in the Hunger Games, and I know that. I saw that movie three times, I'm pretty sure I acknowledge this fact.**  
**-Thirdly, yes, the ages are different. Don't think that I don't know this either. I'm pretty sure I do since I made it that way.**  
**Alright, now that that's over with, let's continue shall we? No? Good, because I don't want to either, so I'm going to leave. But, before I do, I want to thank all of the reviewers of the past chapters. You all make my day!**

**~Bloom**


End file.
